1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a program by which the power consumption can be controlled.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various power control techniques for a portable computer such as, for example, a notebook type personal computer are conventionally known. According to an exemplary one of the power control techniques, when the power consumption of a portable computer exceeds a fixed value determined as a threshold value, the performance of the portable computer is limited to suppress the power consumption. In particular, the power consumption is controlled so as not to exceed a rated power capacity of an AC adapter prescribed for the portable computer. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2004-133646 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses, particularly in the paragraph 0009 of the specification and FIG. 3 and so forth of the drawings, a power control technique of the type described. According to this technique, electric current flowing along a predetermined feed line in an information processing apparatus is detected. Then, if the detected current exceeds a threshold level set in advance based on the rated power capacity of a power supply including an AC adapter and a battery of the information processing apparatus, then a CPU (Central Processing Unit) is driven intermittently thereby to lower the clock frequency. A control method of the type just described is called throttle control, and power saving of the information processing apparatus is achieved by the throttle control.